Online pilot intervention to improve nutritional and lifestyle in Spanish breastfeeding women

Abstract

Introduction: breastfeeding women often cannot adequately follow dietary and healthy habits recommendations. In addition, after delivery, their care is usually focused on the newborn and the mother´s health may be neglected. The Mediterranean Diet is the standard of healthy eating, with the Healthy Food Pyramid (HFP) being its graphic representation. Objective: the aim of this study was to determine whether a nutritional and lifestyle online intervention may improve HFP adherence in breastfeeding women. Methods: a total of 181 breastfeeding women in the first sixth months postpartum were enrolled in a non-randomized interventional pilot study. These women answered three questionnaires: sociodemographic and for adherence to Healthy Food Pyramid (APQ), before and after an online intervention for 13 weeks, providing information about nutrition and healthy habits. The APQ ranges from 0 to 10, with higher scores corresponding to greater adherence to HFP. The intervention consisted of lifestyle and nutritional information, which was provided through e-mail. Results: a low adherence to HFP was found, which was improved after 13 weeks of intervention. The online intervention significantly increased the scores for physical activity, grain, seeds and legumes consumption, olive oil use, dairy products, and ani-mal proteins, as well as the HFP adherence global score. The adjusted models showed that the online intervention was associated with adherence to the HFP and physical activity. Conclusion: we conclude that an online intervention for breastfeeding women had an impact on their lifestyle, improving nutritional and healthy habits, and can be a useful tool to monitor their health status. Given the importance of this stage for women and their newborns, this is an aspect postnatal healthcare professionals should consider.